Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Amazon today jumped in the waters of the “Attention Economy” by announcing a new service called AmazonUnbox. The program will of course compete with iTunes, and according to the New York Times will “sell most movies for $7.99 to $14.99 and most television programs for $1.99 (the same price as Apple). Users can also rent movies for a 24-hour period for $3.99.” Of course the prices are still high for movie downloads ($14.99, which is more expensive than seeing it in a theater), and the file sizes are still very large (according to an estimate in the NY Times story, it could take up to seven hours to download a film), but for shorter fare like TV shows, this could really take off. Plus, when tied to a Tablet PC or UMPC device, it makes even more sense.

Read NY Times: New Service From Amazon Offers Downloadable Films